West Ham United

Boss Graham Potter has urged his players to translate their positive response to recent disappointment on the training pitches to the match arena, ahead of Sunday’s visit of London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

West Ham United welcome Ange Postecoglou’s troops to London Stadium sat 17th in the Premier League standings, after last weekend’s agonising 3-2 defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion that extended their winless run to seven games.

Despite having last earned a three-point haul at home to Leicester City back in late February, the Hammers have remained competitive in each of the following fixtures, and while earning points against the likes of Everton and AFC Bournemouth, and pushing champions Liverpool very close last month.

With four games of the 2024/25 season remaining, Potter is itching for a consistent performance back on home soil that could spark a fast finish, and a climb up the ranks with Wolverhampton Wanderers in 13th only five points ahead.

A final derby of the campaign promises a bustling atmosphere in the east of the capital, and with 16th-place Tottenham having endured a similarly tough domestic campaign, there will be real hope among the home crowd that their team can earn a full share of the spoils and leapfrog their opponents in the table.

The Lilywhites will have taken plenty of confidence from their 3-1 win over Norwegian outfit Bodø/Glimt in the UEFA Europa League semi-finals first leg on Thursday however, and will be itching to generate further momentum ahead of the second leg back on the continent next week.

Ahead of kick-off, Potter sat down with members of the press to discuss a range of topics, including his reaction to last Saturday’s Brighton result, rallying his troops, and what to expect from Spurs.

Bouncing back from Brighton disappointment

I think it’d be surprising if I wasn’t upset after how that game unfolded. So that’s normal. Then it’s just about accepting the human being that we all are and then going, ‘come on, we have to move forward’.

Whenever you come into a job like this, at the sort of time we did, you know there are going to be challenges. It’s the Premier League, and you can see how competitive the league is.

You see where our opponents are, such as Manchester United and Tottenham, who are doing so well in the [UEFA] Europa League, and you see how tough the Premier League is.

So, I never thought it would be easy, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s a fantastic challenge and I’m really enjoying it.

You want to do well for yourself, your family, for the Club you’re working for, and for the supporters. I feel the pressure, and this is a great Club with a desire to do better, so I have to accept that and work as hard as I can to help things improve.

Players responding in the right way

They’re human beings as well, so you can imagine that they have been low, disappointed and angry, but at the same time they’ve been really good in terms of how they’ve gone about picking themselves up.

We spoke after the game about being together. It was really important for us to do that, and they have been together in training, so credit to them for that. We’ve got a big squad here and it’s not always easy to have that togetherness, but I think they’ve done it well.

We’re competitive and we want to win. And so how the Brighton game unfolded was tough for everybody, including the players. So, the job has been to try to acknowledge the feelings that you have, with honesty, and then go from that to showing a good response in training and in the next game.

There’s no point in talking too much; it’s about showing a response. We go into Sunday and we have to put on the right performance. We know how big the game is for our supporters, so we have to put on a show.

Aiming to finish with a flurry

It’s about points at the end of the day, and wins, which is what we need.

We’ve done some things right, but not enough. And it’s hard when you’re where we’re at now to talk with too much positivity. If you take the emotion out of the Brighton game, there were some positives to take, but that’s not really what you want to speak about when you’ve had such a disappointing feeling.

When you’re on the sort of run we’re on, you just want and need wins. We want a front-footed performance - one that shows who we are, full of pride - and to come away with the points.

Expecting a tough test

They’ve had a tough season in the Premier League, because of injuries and other reasons. That just shows that in this league, nothing’s forgiven.

This is the most important game for us, because it’s the next game. And then you add on the fact it’s a London derby, and the added importance for our supporters.

I feel for our supporters because they’ve had a tough year. That’s the reality. They’re frustrated, understandably so. And we want to try and give them something back.

Summerville recovering after surgery

It’s been a complicated one with him, and I think we’re looking towards pre-season [for his return].

That’s where we’re working towards. I think it’s stage-by-stage, depending on how he reacts and how he goes, but the target would be the first few weeks in pre-season.

Formed by Hammers supporters Jack Elderton and Callum Goodall to offer their fellow fans in-depth but accessible analysis of their team and its players, Analytics United use performance analysis and data to examine how Spurs’ visit to London Stadium could play out...

Sat 16th in the Premier League table and on course to record their most losses in a single Premier League season after defeat at Anfield saw them draw level with their previous all-time low of 19 (achieved in 1993/94 and 2003/04), Tottenham Hotspur are suffering a catastrophic league campaign under Australian manager Ange Postecoglou.

After finishing fifth last season and missing out on Champions League football by just two points, there was a feeling that Postecoglou was on his way to bringing Spurs back to days like those they enjoyed under former boss Mauricio Pochettino, combining exciting football with good results to shock other sides and produce impressive league seasons and deep European challenges. Adding Dominic Solanke, Archie Gray, Wilson Odobert and Lucas Bergvall to their squad, whilst only suffering two real first-team losses with Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and Emerson Royal leaving for Marseille and Real Betis, Spurs seemed well positioned to convert on the promise of the previous season and mount a serious challenge to requalify for the Champions League in 2025.

It comes as quite a shock then that, if not for the poor form of the three promoted sides this season, the Lilywhites would instead be facing down the challenge of a serious relegation battle with fixtures against Aston Villa, Brighton and a buoyant Crystal Palace still to come. Yet, even if it seems almost certain that Spurs will finish this campaign with a record number of league defeats, they could still come out with silverware and the Champions League qualification they so desire via the Europa League.

This fixture comes between the two legs of their semi-final against northern Norwegian outfit Bodø/Glimt, taking Postecoglou’s team from the depths of Premier League football to the icy tip of European competition in a whirlwind week where their season could ultimately be defined. Despite Tottenham being 3-1 up at half-time in the tie, Kjetil Knutsen’s team are sure to present a stern challenge, having already dispatched Lazio and Olympiacos in the previous rounds, and Postecoglou could rotate heavily on Sunday to protect his most important players for the second leg. As such, we’ve focused on team-wide issues rather than player-specific challenges and the first of those is simply the number of goals that Spurs have conceded this season.

Whilst injuries have been a key factor throughout, Spurs have still given up countless goals due to the level of risk they take on the ball under Postecoglou. Where the Australian’s tactics brought success at Celtic with a qualitative advantage over the rest of the division, things have been more boom and bust in the Premier League where such risks with the ball can equal great success but can also lead to simple goals for opposition teams with well-coached high-intensity pressing approaches or high quality counter-attacking talent.

Spurs have made 1.06 errors leading to shots per game, the joint-fourth most in the league and level with Ipswich, and we saw yet another for Liverpool’s fifth last weekend as Destiny Udogie and Pape Matar Sarr conspired to lose possession on halfway with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah able to combine to force an Udogie own-goal as punishment.

In that game, another issue that was particularly apparent for Liverpool’s first and second goals was their inability to successfully track runners into the channels when their full-backs are forced to step out and defend on the flanks. Midfielders Archie Gray and James Maddison both attempted to cover runs from Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch into these spaces but were unable to stop dangerous attacking situations from developing.

In the first of those examples, Gray did manage to get back to protect Ben Davies but was caught on the wrong side with Szoboszlai able to maraud through the channel behind him, receiving Salah’s through ball and cutting back across the face of goal for Luis Díaz to tap in. And in the second example, Maddison initially lost Gravenberch making a similar run before recovering and intercepting to prevent the attack developing. Critically though, those risk-taking traits immediately popped up to produce another key error as Mathys Tel attempted a reverse pass under pressure for Gray but lost it to Gravenberch who was able to protect the ball for Alexis Mac Allister to rifle home from range.

This second goal was a perfect example of several issues layering to create real fault lines in Spurs’ defensive efforts. Even if they are able to prevent serious initial areas of weakness from being exploited, follow-on issues always seem to appear, overwhelming sound base ideas designed to help them be one of the more dominant attacking sides in the division.

They remain a dangerous attacking team, but Graham Potter’s West Ham side might find more joy focusing intently on areas of weakness rather than attempting to mitigate strengths like they might against other opposition. With late-arriving goalscoring midfielders in both Carlos Soler and Tomáš Souček, especially with the former’s propensity for runs exploiting the spaces mentioned, Potter does have players capable of finding and attacking some of the more vulnerable spots currently on show for Spurs.

Encouraging the wingers to sit wider, as Arne Slot did, is congruent with an approach that looks to repeatedly probe in these areas and Jarrod Bowen’s two assists in the previous match show the England international’s ability when creating from the touchline. If Potter is able to combine this wide creative talent with incisive central runs and adequate pinning of the centre-backs, something Niclas Füllkrug excels at, then there will almost certainly be opportunities to produce the cutbacks and low crosses the manager favours, hopefully helping the team secure a much-needed positive result at home.

*The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of Analytics United and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of West Ham United.

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Premier League, London Stadium, Sunday 4 May 2025, 2pm BST

West Ham United will be eager to bounce back to winning ways and spark a strong finish to 2024/25 when they welcome Tottenham Hotspur to London Stadium for their final derby of the campaign on Sunday.

The Hammers are winless in seven, following last weekend's narrow defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion, and currently sit 17th in the table with just four fixtures to go until the summer break.

While Graham Potter's men remain 15 points clear of already-relegated 18th-place side Ipswich Town, they know that a string of good results over the coming weeks could yield a run up the standings, with Wolverhampton Wanderers in 13th just five points ahead.

Just one place and one point above the Irons in 16th, Tottenham have endured a difficult season of their own, and in the league have lost five of their last six, including a 5-1 thrashing at champions Liverpool on their most recent outing.

Things have been better for Ange Postecoglou's men on the continent, and while they will arrive in the east of the capital halfway through their two-legged UEFA Europa League semi-final against Bodø/Glimt, they will be hoping to build momentum back on the domestic front, as well.

All signs point to an enticing match-up, then, with both teams firmly focused on securing all three points to boost their season run-in.

Read on for everything you need to know ahead of the match...

Tickets…

Tickets for this sold-out game are still available on the Ticket Exchange, with Season Ticket Holders who cannot attend this fixture relisting their seats for other supporters to buy.

Click HERE to check availability or relist.

Supporters are urged to arrive early at London Stadium on Sunday as security and ticket checks will be in place at all entry points.

Travel…

There are no planned disruptions to TfL Underground services on the Central and Jubilee lines, though there are set to be issues on the Bakerloo, Circle, District and Waterloo & City lines, Elizabeth line services, the Docklands Light Railway and the Lioness, Suffragette and Windrush lines on the London Overground. Supporters using these services are highly recommended to check their routes before departure.

Similarly, there are planned disruptions on Greater Anglia and c2c mainline services, as well as the Southeastern network that serves Stratford International.

Stratford and Stratford City Bus Stations are located in close proximity to Stratford station. Buses that run to these stations are numbers: 25, 86, 97, 104, 108, 158, 241, 257, 262, 276, 308, 425, 473, D8.

Supporters using public transport are advised to check their journeys before they travel, using resources such as TfL’s Journey Planner and the TfL Go app. Supporters may also wish to visit the National Rail website if travelling on the rail network.

There is no parking available at London Stadium. Restrictions will be in place and enforced in the local area.

How To Follow…

Sunday’s 2pm kick-off will NOT be broadcast live in the UK, but will be shown across the world by the Premier League’s international broadcast partners.

If you live outside the UK, click HERE for details of Premier League listings in your territory.

You can follow the action via our live blog on whufc.com and our app, and across our social media channels. We will also have highlights and exclusive reaction for you after the final whistle on our website and social media.

Live audio commentary will be available in the UK on BBC Radio London, and worldwide on our official website and app.

We Are West Ham. United...

At West Ham United, we are proud to be based in one of the most multicultural areas of the country where equality, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of everything we do. Regardless of ethnicity, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation or beliefs, everyone is welcome at our Club.

Our aspiration is to be the equity leader in football and alongside our supporters, this is something we are continually looking to build on and improve. We thank all of our fans for their ongoing support and for helping us to eradicate the bad behaviours which do not represent our Club, our community or our West Ham United family.

To report any concerns on matchday, text SUPPORT plus your message to 83121 or speak to the nearest steward, SLO or Police Officer. Text messages are treated in the strictest confidence, and, for our staff, it is better to monitor the situation as it is happening and to be able to take action at the time of it occurring.

Our Conduct Charter is created to further support the provision of a welcoming, safe and inclusive environment for all West Ham United supporters and staff at home and away matches, on social media, Club related meetings or events, or in any other forum.

Official Programme…

West Ham United’s 2024/25 Official Programme for Sunday’s Premier League derby fixture against Tottenham Hotspur at London Stadium is available to purchase online now!

Following the historic, combined men's and women's issue for the Premier League and Barclays Women's Super League games against Southampton and Manchester United respectively, the Club has once again produced a bumper 132-page programme for the men's team's upcoming visit of Ange Postecoglou's Spurs, complete with a bespoke cover illustration and an additional eight-page pullout, featuring an eye-catching poster, a brainteasing quiz and plenty of games for our younger Hammers.

The largest publication in English football, this weekend's Official Programme is still priced at just £4, representing remarkable value for money for supporters of all ages wanting exclusive interviews, attention-grabbing opinions and eye-catching photographs, plus the regular news, columns and statistics and insightful content from across all areas of the Club.

The Official Programme is the definitive Claret and Blue publication for West Ham fans.

Click HERE for more information, and HERE to purchase your copy!

Blesma, The Limbless Veterans...

Sunday marks Charity Partner Blesma’s annual Awareness Day at London Stadium.

Based in Chelmsford, Blesma is a UK Armed Forces charity dedicated to supporting serving and ex-Service men and women who have experienced life-changing limb loss, or the loss of use of limbs, eyes or sight.

The charity offers lifelong support to those who have served our country, providing a range of services including prosthetic and mobility assistance, grants, benefits advice and a variety of activities designed to enhance wellbeing. Since the First World War, Blesma has supported over 61,000 limbless veterans.

To find out more about Blesma and how to support their vital work, please click HERE.

Team News…

Graham Potter will hold his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon. However, we do know that long-term absentees Michail Antonio and Crysencio Summerville will miss the game, with the latter having recently undergone surgery on his hamstring injury.

Evan Ferguson will be fighting for selection again, having been ineligible to face his parent club Brighton & Hove Albion last time out, while Edson Álvarez will be assessed after missing the last two matches.

Tottenham captain Son Heung-min is a doubt for this weekend's clash, having missed their last three Premier League fixtures through injury, and defender Radu Drăgușin remains out.

Opposition…

At the start of April last year, everything looked good at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Australian head coach Ange Postecoglou had kicked off his reign with a ten-match unbeaten run that saw Spurs storm to the top of the Premier League table. And although results had been less consistent for the next few months, Tottenham still went into the final seven matches of the 2024/25 campaign in the top four and on course for UEFA Champions League qualification.

However, the north Londoners would lose five of those seven matches, all to clubs rivalling them for a top-four finish, and ultimately slip to a fifth-place finish and settle for a place in the UEFA Europa League.

While fifth in his first season in charge was, on paper, a decent return for Postecoglou, that late-season downturn in results continued into the current campaign, leaving the aforementioned Europa League as Tottenham’s only hope of returning to continental competition in 2025/26.

Ahead of this weekend's action, Spurs have won just eleven of their 34 Premier League games and sit in the bottom third of the table, albeit with a bizarre positive goal difference generated by a series of emphatic early-season victories.

Those pre-Christmas wins over the likes of Everton, Brentford, Manchester United, West Ham United, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Southampton seem like a lifetime, rather than a few months, ago.

Since thumping reigning champions Manchester City 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium on 23 November, Tottenham have won five and lost 14 of the 22 Premier League matches they have played and dropped from sixth to 16th in the table.

The Carabao Cup offered some respite, with early-round wins over both Manchester clubs and a semi-final first-leg victory over Liverpool raising hopes of a first trophy win since 2008, only for the Reds to thump Spurs 4-0 in the second leg at Anfield.

An FA Cup fourth-round exit at Aston Villa ended that chance of silverware, leaving the Europa League as the only route open to Postecoglou, who said last September ‘I always win things in my second year’.

To be fair, Tottenham have done well in Europe, finishing fourth in the new Europa League league phase, then defeating West Ham’s recent European opponents AZ of the Netherlands and Eintracht Frankfurt of Germany in the knockout stages to set up a two-legged semi-final with Norwegian champions Bodø/Glimt, the first of which will be played in north London on Thursday evening.

Victory over Bodø/Glimt and either Manchester United or Athletic Club of Bilbao in the final would secure Spurs a place in next season’s Champions League, prove Postecoglou right and end 17 years without a major trophy.

Previous Meetings…

West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur have met 57 times in the Premier League, with Spurs winning 27 to the Hammers’ 18, while 12 matches have been drawn.

The Irons are unbeaten in the sides’ last four matches at London Stadium. Before 1-1 draws in April 2024 and August 2022, Michail Antonio scored the winner in October 2021 and was also on the scoresheet alongside Jesse Lingard in a 2-1 triumph over Jose Mourinho’s team behind closed doors in February of that year.

Tottenham did beat West Ham three times on the trot at home in all competitions between December 2021 and February 2023, until Jarrod Bowen and James Ward-Prowse strikes powered David Moyes’ men to a 2-1 win in north London in early December 2023.

Spurs did triumph in the teams' most recent meeting, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, however, with Dejan Kulusevski, Yves Bissouma and Son Heung-min strikes, and an Alphonse Areola own-goal, powering Ange Postecoglou's men to a 4-1 win in October 2024.

This particular match-up also has a reputation for a wonderstrike or two. Manuel Lanzini rescued a point with a 30-yard screamer as the Hammers overturned a three-goal deficit to draw 3-3 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2020, while two years earlier Pedro Obiang stunned Wembley Stadium with an unstoppable long-range rocket in a game that finished 1-1.

Match Officials…

Referee: Michael Oliver

Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt and James Mainwaring

Fourth Official: Ruebyn Ricardo

VAR: Darren England

Assistant VAR: Peter Wright

Michael Oliver will referee a West Ham United fixture for the 45th time in his illustrious career on Sunday.

Born in Ashington, Northumberland, 40-year-old Oliver was introduced to refereeing by his father, Clive, at the age of 14 and became the youngest referee to officiate at Wembley Stadium when he took charge of the 2007 Conference National play-off final, aged just 22.

He had already become the youngest Football League assistant referee and referee when he became the youngest Premier League referee when he took charge of Birmingham City’s 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers on 21 August 2010, aged 25.

Since that historic day, Oliver has refereed two FA Cup finals, in 2018 and 2021, the EFL Cup final in 2016, UEFA Super Cup final in 2022 and EFL Championship Play-Off final in 2023.

He is five short of 400 Premier League appointments and has passed 750 matches at all levels, including 39 in the UEFA Champions League.

Included in those 755 games were three at UEFA Euro 2020, three at the 2022 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2024, in addition to Nations League ties and international friendlies.

For more information about the officials, click HERE.

We face our final derby of the season on Sunday when we welcome Tottenham Hotspur to London Stadium - and you can be there with limited seats available on the Ticket Exchange.

Our meeting with our London rivals has sold out, but you don't have to miss out as Season Ticket Holders who cannot make the game are relisting their seats for other members of the Claret and Blue Army to buy.

So with just two home games left - and this the last meeting with a fellow London side - you'll need to be there as we go for three points against Ange Postecogolu's side.

Tickets start at £50 for adults and £37.50 concessions, so secure your seat now as we aim to end the campaign on a high.

West Ham United v Tottenham Hotspur

Premier League, London Stadium, Sunday 4 May 2025, 2pm BST

Referee: Michael Oliver

Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt & James Mainwaring

Fourth Official: Ruebyn Ricardo

VAR: Darren England

Assistant VAR: Peter Wright

Michael Oliver will referee a West Ham United fixture for the 45th time in his illustrious career on Sunday.

Born in Ashington, Northumberland, 40-year-old Oliver was introduced to refereeing by his father, Clive, at the age of 14 and became the youngest referee to officiate at Wembley Stadium when he took charge of the 2007 Conference National play-off final, aged just 22.

He had already become the youngest Football League assistant referee and referee when he became the youngest Premier League referee when he took charge of Birmingham City’s 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers on 21 August 2010, aged 25.

Since that historic day, Oliver has refereed two FA Cup finals, in 2018 and 2021, the EFL Cup final in 2016, UEFA Super Cup final in 2022 and EFL Championship Play-Off final in 2023.

He is five short of 400 Premier League appointments and has passed 750 matches at all levels, including 39 in the UEFA Champions League.

Included in those 755 games were three at UEFA Euro 2020, three at the 2022 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2024, in addition to Nations League ties and international friendlies.

Oliver will be assisted by Stuart Burt and James Mainwaring.

Burt, like Oliver, got into refereeing through his father and also worked at Euro 2024 alongside Sunday’s referee. Burt has officiated matches in the National League and run the line for 38 West Ham games previously.

Mainwaring will be running the line for a Hammers fixture for the 22nd time, the fourth time this season, but the first assisting Oliver.

The fourth official will be Ruebyn Ricardo who, like Oliver, has been a trailblazer for young match officials. Ricardo became the youngest Black referee to officiate an EFL fixture when he took charge of Crewe Alexandra versus Swindon Town in April 2023, aged just 25. He has refereed 39 matches this season, including 25 in the EFL and three in the FA Cup.

Darren England will look after Video Assistant Referee duties.

The 39-year-old has been busy in 2024/25, refereeing 17 Premier League and five other matches, including West Ham’s 3-2 defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend, and serving as VAR for eight games in domestic and UEFA competitions.

Taking a look back at a classic West Ham United moment on this day in history, in association with Heineken...

West Ham United produced a superb all-round performance to thrash Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 at White Hart Lane on this day in 1994.

The Hammers, who were enjoying their first season in the Premier League, tore Ossie Ardiles' Spurs apart, with first-half substitute Steve Jones opening the scoring on 37 minutes.

Trevor Morley doubled the Irons' lead with a penalty on the hour mark before future Hammer Teddy Sheringham pulled one back from the spot five minutes later.

Billy Bonds' side were not to be denied a famous win, though, as Morley struck his second on 72 minutes before Mike Marsh completed the scoring eleven minutes from full-time.

West Ham would go on to finish 13th in the 22-team table on 52 points, seven points and two places ahead of their north London rivals.

Preview Percy is back after the international break. Don’t worry, there’s another one in November. Here’s his look at Saturday’s trip to North London in the meantime...

Next up we have our inoculations as we get up in the middle of the night to venture north to the London Borough Of Haringey (motto: “At least we’re not Croydon”) for a 12:30pm kick-off at the toilet bowl where we will be hosted by Tottenham Hotspur.

C2C will be having a load of engineering works which will see a reduced service, with all trains diverted to Liverpool Street which might make things easier. Possibly not.

So Tottenham then. It is a fact of life for their supporters that, no matter what the team does on the pitch, the club will for some reason always be a laughing stock for the rest of the world. Indeed you can bet your last penny that someone, somewhere in Carlisle (bottom of League 2 with a -13 goal difference) is sitting there with a pint and thinking “still, at least we’re not Tottenham”.

They were of course rather scathing of our European win – the most repeated comment being “Mickey Mouse Cup”. Interesting how they have become experts on trophies all of a sudden isn’t it? I expect they’ve seen silverware on the telly or something. Meanwhile their own foray into the Thursday Night Conference effectively ended when they got beaten by Slovenia’s sixth best team. Not exactly Fiorentina, was it?

Back home it’s been an odd start to the season for them. Three wins (Everton h 4-0, Brentford h 3-1 and Man Utd h 3-0), three defeats (Newcastle a 2-1, Arsenal h 0-1 and Brighton a 3-2) and an opening-day 1-1 draw at Leicester has left them on 10 points from the seven they have played so far. The defeat to Brighton down in Falmer last week went some way to explaining a national epidemic of split sides, as a comfortable 2-0 lead was not so much thrown away as placed atop one of Elon Musk’s rockets and boosted into orbit.

As ever, Daisy has been poring over the information regarding their new signings. The first arrival came in the form of young Swedish midfielder Lucas Bergvall. The midfielder commanded a fee of around £8.5m coming in from Djurgarden. The 18 year-old’s starts so far this season have been confined to the League Cup and the Thursday Night League, though he has made five appearances off the bench in the league.

Those of us of a certain age felt ever so slightly older at the announcement that they had brought in Archie Gray from Leeds – and not simply because of the £40m fee that was paid to Leeds for an 18 year-old. As one travels towards the autumn years of one’s life, one gets used to seeing players who are the sons of those one remembers seeing play when one was a hell of a lot younger. One gets used to that eventually.

However in Archie Gray we are looking at the GRANDson of Frank Gray and GREAT nephew of Eddie Gray who, particularly in the case of the latter, was part of the Leeds side who kicked and (allegedly but everyone knows they did) bribed their way to 1970’s success. Like the Swedish lad, Gray’s starts have come in the League Cup and on Thursday nights, though again he has three sub appearances in the league.

Dominic Solanke’s signing raised an eyebrow or two and again this was not entirely down to the £65m fee paid to Bournemouth. History is littered with journeymen strikers who have a season in the sun before reality kicks in and they fade to obscurity.

Solanke’s career has all the hallmarks, scoring for fun at lower levels to assist with promotion but not really doing much in the top flight. Then came last season when suddenly he managed 19 goals in 38 league matches. To put that into context, his previous 96 top flight appearances over a period of seven or so years had netted him a grand total of 10 goals.

He has notched twice in five league starts but it remains to be seen how much bench time he gets when they have the likes of Son and Richarlison available again. Having said that, he is just the sort of player who scores against us and nobody else.

Further attacking options arrived in the form of Winston Odobert and Timo Werner. Odobert arrived for a so-called undisclosed fee of £25m from Burnley, for whom he holds the record of youngest ever Premier League scorer. A thigh injury will preclude his involvement on Saturday however. Werner on the other hand is not really a new signing as such, this season’s loan from Leipzig being a renewal of last season’s loan, with the added option to buy for £8.5m at the conclusion.

As far as injuries go for Saturday, both Son and Richarlison will need late tests to see if they are fit enough to throw themselves to the floor on Saturday both having missed the last few weeks. The international break will have been handily placed for their recovery then.

On we move and welcome then to the Wild and Wacky World Of Association Football. And we were all heartened, weren’t we, to hear that VAR errors are down by 80% this season. Rejoice one and all. An impressive statistic indeed. Until, that is, you realise that the source of that statistic is, er, PGMOL.

The statistic seems to depend on acceptance of PGMOL’s snow job every time something goes wrong, which, of course sees them rewriting the laws of the game every time they don’t get it right giving an instant removal from the stats for whatever mess they are clearing up at the time. As if to underline the matter, we saw a return of the completely made-up provision that contact in the box has to be “sustained” to make any sort of difference.

It doesn’t and the sole purpose of this trend is to repeat it often enough for it to be accepted. And of course, by concentrating on the false VAR narrative, the fraudulent and misleading statistic completely ignores the lousy standard of refereeing in general, most of which never gets near a video screen to review. So thanks for the update Mr Webb, but come back and see me when someone less dishonest is marking your homework.

And of course we should mention that our national team has a new manager in the form of Thomas Tuchel. This seems to have caused a mass bursting of blood vessels in certain quarters as it became public knowledge that Herr Tuchel is in fact a – wait for it – German. Shock, horror. It’s almost as if Capello and Eriksson never happened.

Now I’m as patriotic as the next man, but I have to say that I have no problem with Tuchel on the basis of his nationality. I am reliably informed that it is the year 2024 and these things really shouldn’t matter. The only issue I might have is whether or not he is the right man for the job.

That’s not a reflection on Tuchel’s abilities in any way. It’s more representative of my doubts in the abilities of anyone at the FA to make a decent decision on the matter. After all these were the people who decided that Sam Allardyce was the man for the job. And let’s not forget Allardyce is English.

In the meantime, Tuchel could do us all a favour by taking a look at whether Trent Alexander-Arnold is really worth his place. One free-kick apart, he produced his standard substandard performance in an England shirt, a pre-match interview suggesting that he was too good to consider playing in a fixed position (“I play the game, not the position”) was the relevant quote.

This was picked up in an interesting article in the Sunday Times by David Walsh, the gist of which was that too many England players believe the hype the TV companies spout about them. So when they come up against a team like Greece who, to paraphrase Alexander-Arnold’s nonsense, "play the game not the reputation" they come mightily unstuck. Meanwhile, Liverpool supporters are apparently worried Alexander-Arnold might go to Real Madrid. On that showing, Real Madrid’s fans should be more concerned.

And so to us. Wasn’t it nice to be the ones scoring in the first minute for a change? It wasn’t perfect, but there were little spells where we played some decent stuff. It was particularly good to see Jean-Clair Todibo start to settle in and his partnership with Max Kilman is beginning to develop nicely. It is true that Ipswich were poor – and they’ll be relying on other teams being worse than they are if they want to stay up. However, the result didn’t flatter us in the end and it’s just a shame that we had the international break served to interrupt our momentum.

On the injury front Fullkrug will miss out again, “complications” having set in on his dodgy calf muscle. I’m guessing that the Paqueta family turf accountants may already have opened a book on whether we actually see him play again given that the transfer window re-opens in a little more than two months. Other than that it’s a full squad to choose from with no ill-effects being reported from those engaged on international duty.

So hopefully the last two games have seen Mr Lopetegui get a little bit closer to knowing what his preferred line up is likely to be. We will have the usual thing of course with Spurs raising their game against their betters making the match more difficult that it might otherwise be.

With that in mind I think I will plump for a draw. So the £2 that I was going to spend on their best selling video “Tottenham – the Audi Cup Glory Years” (I haven’t got anything that plays Betamax anyway) will instead be taken down to Winston The Turf Accountant and exchanged in wager on a 2-2 draw.

Enjoy The Game!

When last we met at the Toilet Bowl: Won 2-1 (Premier League Dec 2023)

Romero gave the home side a half-time lead but they failed to add to the tally. Bowen capitalised on some hilariously awful defending to level. Did I say Hilariously awful? Well it was nothing as the ‘keeper made a mess of a hospital back-pass under pressure from Bowen. Sticking the ball into the empty net was too easy for Ward-Prowse who elected instead to play a one-two off the goalpost as Bowen cleverly stayed out of it all to avoid being caught offside. So long and thanks for all the points.

Danger Man: Brennan Johnson

On a run of six in six at present, though on past form it will be journeyman Solanke who may cause issues.

Referee: Andrew Madley

Last seen at Anfield where he refused three penalties that he would have given without hesitation had they occurred up the other end. Also allowed a goal so offside it was visible from outer space, though he can blame his lino for that one. And because VAR wasn’t in operation it didn’t count towards the shameful propaganda that masquerades as statistics in the bent world of PGMOL. Large G&Ts all round then eh Mr Webb.

Percy and Daisy’s Tottenham Fact Of The Week Type Thing

Tottenham are the current holders of the Audi Cup, a pre-season tournament that was held until 2019. Having seen their trophy won by Spurs, Audi seem to have been so embarrassed by their flagship tournament being won by them it looks like they pulled their sponsorship in the hope nobody would notice, and the cup hasn’t been played for since. Still I believe they do a nice video of it on Betamax.

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